Born to make you happy
by Hope Strong
Summary: After returning to the future, Jen clears her heart, and enjoys the life she left behind


Disclaimer: The Power Rangers Time Force, the characters names and all related indicia are copyrighted trademarks, belonging to Buena Vista Ent. The song "Born to make you Happy" is sung by Britney Spears and appears in her first album, "Baby one more time."  
  
Author's note: I wrote this to get it out of my head so I could move on with "Treacherous Love Story", it's also a Jen/Alex romance. Feedback is always welcome.  
  
Born to make you Happy By: Shirley Chong  
  
I'm sitting here alone up in my room  
  
And think about the times that we've been through  
  
Jen looked at the empty box with dread. The sole idea of putting Alex's stuff away was painful.  
  
It had been two months she had returned from her mission in the 21st century and as time had passed the pain she felt for Wes started to become the pain she felt for herself. She was alone, and all her dreams were upside down.  
  
And then there was Alex. Always by her side, helping through her toughest mission, guiding her through the darkest moments, just like always. She could still see his eyes sparkle when he looked at her, and she had developed the desire to take the pain she had caused away.  
  
Ever since he had met her, Alex had done everything he could to keep her happy and safe. She had to admit she had been the happiest woman on Earth everyday she had spent in Alex's arms. Every kiss had made her fly and every caress had melted her away.  
  
AS she folded the shirts Alex had left in her apartment and put them inside the box she felt a tear running down her cheek as she realized she was putting the remains of the happiest years of her life in a box.  
  
I'm looking at a picture in my hand,  
  
Trying my best to understand  
  
I really want to know what we did wrong  
  
With a love that felt so strong  
  
She heard a sound and looked down to see what she had dropped. It was a small photo album disc.  
  
She picked it up and put it in the computer. The screen lit up and pictures of her and Alex during a picnic they had had during Alex's last day off before he began his special training to capture Ransik on his own.  
  
She passed by some of the pictures Alex had taken of her, and some she had taken of him, smiling with both mouth and eyes. He glowed with happiness on those pictures.  
  
She smiled looking at one where he appeared sticking his tongue out at her. Despite her smile, tears began to run down her cheeks while she wondered where had those good times gone, where were those feelings now?  
  
If only you were here tonight  
  
I know that we could make it right  
  
She changed Alex's picture for the next. It had been taking by a passing walker. In that one, they were kissing, with their arms wrapped around each other tightly. She touched the picture, as if touching it would give her back a bit of the freedom and happiness she had felt back then.  
  
She wished she and Alex had talked things out, but they hadn't. She had just left to save Wes, and when she came back, Alex asked if they could be friends, and she said ok. And they both pretended they had never been together, they both pretended those kisses, those nights together had never happened. They both decided to pretend they had never chosen to spend the rest of their lives together, even if they changed their minds after a while.  
  
She knew that if she just talked to Alex, her heart would clear up. She knew that if Alex wrapped his arms around her tightly enough she was going to be happy with him again. She knew, suddenly, she belonged in Alex's arms, not Wes's.  
  
She felt her heart pound against her chest. She took several deep breaths, trying to hide her pain from herself. But instead, she burst into a torrential cry, running towards the box and pulling one of Alex's shirts from it. She buried her face into it, trying to find a trace of his scent on it. But she didn't. She curled into a ball on the floor, crying hard. "I'm sorry, Wes," she said aloud, "I'm sorry but I love him, after all"  
  
I don't know how to live with out your love  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
Cause you are the only one within my heart  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
Always and forever you and me  
  
That's the way our life should be I don't know how to live without your love  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
Hours later, Jen sat on her living room couch, her eyes red and puffy from her crying. She wondered what to do now that she knew she still loved Alex with the same certainty she knew all her chances with him where over.  
  
Alex had been her first serious boyfriend. He had been her first lover. He had been her first true love, her first and only.  
  
Yes, only, because what she had felt for Wes was nothing but a projection of her feelings for Alex, for the Alex she knew; the one only she knew.  
  
The Alex that kissed very inch of her body every Saturday night taking her to her own particular heaven.  
  
The Alex that tickled her breathless when they were eating pancakes in his kitchen.  
  
The Alex that took her to the fairs and won her a dozen bears they gave away to poor children later.  
  
She realized the Wes she thought she loved was nothing but a part of Alex, her part of Alex.  
  
The other Alex, the cold stranger Alex, he was there because he had his badge, because he was wearing his uniform. That cold, bossy Alex wasn't her Alex. It was the Time Force's Alex.  
  
During those months she had spent in the future, around things that reminded her of Alex, she had noticed all the small things Alex did for her. All those little details that made her life so much better day after day.  
  
During those few months, when she had felt alone and cold at night and had had to cook her own breakfast on Sundays, when she had wanted a backrub so badly and there was no one there to give it, she had realized that her life was with Alex. She had realized that when they had told each other "Together Forever" they had meant it, because they simply couldn't live without each other.  
  
For a few seconds she imagined Alex walking into her living room and taking her with him to a small church and married her that very night, with no doubts, no expenses, no peeping toms, just her and her beloved man.  
  
Tears ran down her cheeks again.  
  
She wondered how she was going to recover from loosing Alex, the only man she had ever truly loved over a mistake so obvious a blind person could have seen.  
  
I know I've been a fool since you've been gone  
  
I better give it up and carry on  
  
Cause living in a dream of you and me  
  
It's not the way my life should be  
  
Alex looked at the ring in his hand. He had spent 4 hours in the jewelry choosing it. And then he had prepared for days what to say ad when to say it.  
  
And when she had said 'yes' he felt like he was flying.  
  
Then there was Ransik again.  
  
And last there was Wes.  
  
The only things he had left now were the ring he had spent for hours choosing just to have it given back to him by her right before she went back in time to save the man she suddenly loved; and a bunch of 'what if's and 'if only's:  
  
'If Only' he had communicated with her and told her he was alive.  
  
'If Only' he had been nicer to her when he was in the year 2001  
  
'What if' he had talked to her when she had returned?  
  
'What if' they had managed to work things out?  
  
He admitted it to himself. He had been an idiot. And therefore he had lost Jen. If he had worried about being her boyfriend and her friend more than her superior he would have married her the moment she stepped out of the time ship. But No, not him, he was loyal to the Time Force first, then he was loyal to his heart.  
  
He cursed himself with his profession, because it was a profession he loved and a profession that loved him back. But it didn't love him enough to let him be happy in the arms of a woman he loved. A woman that had loved him back for a while.  
  
Alex closed his hand around the ring and then, a single tear ran down his cheek. He put the ring back in its box and put the box on the larger one with the rest of Jen's stuff. While he sealed the box he accepted what he ha refused for so long. He had to leave Jen behind and move on. She would never love him back again, it didn't matter how much he loved her.  
  
He accepted that loving her still was living on a fantasy, living on a memory; and doing that was going to destroy him eventually.  
  
I don't want to cry a tear for you  
  
So forgive if I do  
  
If only you were here tonight  
  
I know that we could make things right  
  
He shook his head smirking at the thought.  
  
AS IF he could DECIDE to stop loving her.  
  
He couldn't just decide he didn't want to run his finger through her hair, he couldn't choose not to want to kiss her, not to want to touch her skin, to have her in his arms and feel her his.  
  
Tears threatened him again. He tried hard to hold them back, until he realized he was alone. Completely alone.  
  
He ran his hands through his hair as tears began to fall down his cheeks.  
  
He wished there was a way to get Jen back.  
  
He knew if he could talk to her that night, they'll make things right.  
  
And then as the practical man he was, he dried his tears and grabbed his coat and the ring. He was going to get Jennifer back, or destroy his last bit of hope.  
  
I'd do anything  
  
I'd give you my world  
  
I'd wait forever to be your girl  
  
Just call out my name  
  
And I will be there  
  
Just to show j you how much I care  
  
Jen looked out the window; the grey skies reflected how she felt inside. She looked down to the street and saw something that surprised her.  
  
It was Alex.  
  
She ran to her door, her face still tear stricken and ran downstairs, to meet him in front of the building.  
  
He smiled a little, surprised at her eagerness in the very second rain began to fall.  
  
"Please, please don't be here to pick up your stuff," she whispered, while she moved from the door so he could get inside the building's lobby. "Let's go upstairs," she offered. He followed her guide, wondering about her words.  
  
Jen opened the door to her apartment, her heart filled with excitement. Even if the talk he wanted to have didn't go the way she wanted, even if he didn't believe she still loved her, she wanted to have that talk. To either become the happiest woman ever, or to watch all her hopes die. Either way, it was better than not knowing, either way was better than keeping fake hopes.  
  
"Jen, we have to talk," he began; she looked into his blue eyes trying to figure out where that conversation was going.  
  
"I know," she said, her voice broken.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.  
  
"I'm lost without you," she admitted. He looked into her eyes, his fingers caressing the side of her neck instinctively.  
  
"What do you mean?" he asked. She couldn't find the voice to say the words, so she decided to play it all at once.  
  
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, deeply, with earnest love. For a second he didn't react. Then he felt a rush of something that crossed happiness, passion and freedom. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, pressing her tightly against his body.  
  
She parted his lips with her tongue and ran her hands through his hair. The held into that kiss for as long as they could.  
  
Then they broke apart.  
  
"What was that about?" Alex asked, taking deep breaths. Jen couldn't find the voice to explain. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. As Alex's look changed suddenly from curiosity to what looked like anger, she struggled eve harder to find her voice and talk. "I see what happened here," he commented, she shook her head, holding his hands. "You thought I was Wes," he said looking away from her.  
  
"No!" she said at last her voice broken as tears ran down her cheeks again. Alex looked at her, his look curious, was she telling the truth?  
  
"You didn't think I was Wes?" he repeated.  
  
"No. Not for a second," she assured him. "I've been doing some thinking Alex, and I've realized that I was very stupid, when I gave you that ring without thinking." She said, Alex looked at her with blank expression. He slipped one hand from her grasp and slid it in his pocket, smiling mentally. "Alex, w-w-would you take me back?" she stammered, her gaze falling to the floor.  
  
"With one condition," he answered.  
  
"Anything," she said, looking up again. He pulled the ring out of his pocket and presented her with it.  
  
"You have to forgive me for being an idiot, and take me back," he said, she smiled  
  
"I do," she said. He slipped the ring into her left ring finger.  
  
"Marry me," he said simply.  
  
"Tonight if you want me to," she said. He pulled her closer again and melted his lips with hers in another long passionate kiss.  
  
"I want you to," he said staring into her eyes.  
  
+++++++  
  
"do you, Alexander, take this woman as your legitimate wife, and promise to love her, honor her and respect her as long as you both shall live?" the judge asked  
  
"I do," he said, looking at her  
  
"And, do you Jennifer, take this man as your legitimate husband, to love him, honor him and respect him as long as you both shall live?" Jen took a deep breath and looked at Alex's face, the first and last face she was going to see everyday for the rest of her life.  
  
"I do," she answered.  
  
"Then, by the powers conferred over me-" the judge stopped as Alex raised his hand  
  
"Yes, we know" he said, "If you don't mind, I'm going to kiss my bride," he announced, wrapping his arms round Jen and kissing her softly on the lips.  
  
"We are going to surprise the world tomorrow morning," she said. He ran his fingers through her hair.  
  
"Tomorrow," he repeated kissing her again. "Tonight it's for us. We have plenty of things to do, and plenty of time to do them."  
  
She smiled and they kissed again.  
  
Now they were going to be together forever, like they always said they would. There were no doubts in the hearts, and no weight in their souls. They had found their path, they were no longer lost. And they would stay like that, as long as they both shall live. As they headed home they knew why they had met. They were born to make each other happy,  
  
"I love you, Jennifer," Alex said.  
  
"And I love you, Alex, only you" She answered with no doubt.  
  
I don't know how to live with out your love  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
Cause you are the only one within my heart  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
Always and forever you and me  
  
That's the way our life should be  
  
I don't know how to live without your love  
  
I was born to make you happy  
  
The End.  
  
Author's note: I know, I know, I totally crossed the line here, and I know I missed a chorus of the song, and I know Alex and Jen are slightly out of character, but that's what fan fictions are about, right? 


End file.
